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Monday, October 19, 2015

Are You Going Where the Majority Goes?

* By the time Francis Chan was sixteen, his mom is dead, his step mom is dead, and his dad is dead. (His mom died while giving birth to Francis. His step-mother died in a car accident. His dad died of cancer when he was twelve.) Then his remaining guardians Uncle George and Aunt Sandra also died (in a murder suicide.) At a young age, Francis Chan had experienced more instability than most of us have.

* When things around us become unstable, we tend to play it safe, and we hug and straddle the balance beam [instead of performing on it] as Francis demonstrated in his analogy of Olympics’ gymnastics.

After experiencing some instability, we tend to think, "This is crazy. I'm just going to have my nice little family. We're going to keep to ourselves. We're going to live in a gated community. I'm going to home school my kids [and] make them wear helmets everywhere. I'm not going to let them outside because the sun has bad rays... You just live your life in this - I don't want to do anything crazy for God. I just want to go to church and give maybe 2%, and may be serve/help the nursery (because I feel guilty.) You do this your whole life. Your greatest prayer is, "God, I would love to die in my sleep and not even feel it, and I would love to go to heaven."

Imagine watching the Olympics and the girl just straddles and hugs the balance beam for several minutes throughout the whole routine, and then gets off the balance beam in a pose of victory. What is the judge supposed to do? "Wow, well done!" Is the judge going to say that? "Well done!" You lived the safest life possible. You didn't slip. You didn't fall." This is what the majority will do with their life. Do you want to go where the majority goes? Are you going the same way as the majority?

* I don't want to go where the majority goes.

Contemplation/Free-writing Exercise

Write two or more paragraphs addressing one or more of the following questions. Do you think you will be happy and fulfilled just pursuing a safe comfortable life with money, a nice house, a nice car, a nice family with kids, and nice vacations periodically? Is this typical pursuit really going to make you happy when you obtain all of it? For those who already have attained all of these, are they truly fulfilled and happy? Not that we shouldn’t have this comfort and security. However, is there something else, something greater than yourself you should also pursue, alongside working for these necessities and amenities of life? How can you pursue something greater that would ironically also provide all these necessities and security in the long run? How can going where the majority does not, provide greater fulfillment (while also providing the lesser necessities and amenities most people pursue)? Are you currently going where the majority is going? Are you okay with that? If not, what do you need to do to change directions?